Bogley

[Mtnman1830]

The Original Stash Dash

We headed out for the caching run of the year. Our plan was to travel across Nevada into Oregon, drop down into California, then head north to Vancouver BC through Oregon and Washington On the way home, we would travel across the panhandle of Idaho into Montana, then down thru Idaho again into Utah.
The first stretch would take us south of the Great Salt Lake and across the barren wasteland called Nevada. Good thing there are plenty of geocaches along the way to break up the monotony of hills, sagebrush and rabbits.
We headed up north and Winnemucca and found a place to set up camp. It was a desolate gravel area, almost a parking lot in the middle of nowhere. Sleep was fairly quick to come, after adjusting our position to avoid the larger of the stones, (we did not bring air mattresses to save space) the aroma of sagebrush, and in the wee hours of the morning we were serenaded by a coyotes.
We were pup shortly after the sun and while we broke camp, there was a large cow-pie under Shphilby and Athena’s tent. The rest of the trip was wrought with quips about a cow-pie pillow.
We packed our stuff got out our camp stoves to warm up some water for our oatmeal and were underway again to get this desert behind us.
Crossing into Oregon, the scenery didn’t change much, and Athena was tiring of the micro caches. She was looking forward to the one with ‘swag’.
We followed the highway toward the coast, and make a small detour into California to say we have cached there.
We took pictures by the welcome to California sign and headed north to Ashland to visit Shphilby’s cousin and rest from driving for a spell.
We arrived and were welcomed by Jill, the cousin’s girlfriend. We visited for a few hours an had a few drinks of beer and wine and we introduced her to geocaching. She thought it was pretty neat that there was a cache in a park that she had been in many times.
We headed out, trying to make it to the coast for the sunset, but around 11:00pm we started looking for a place to camp for the night.
We found a nice little place called Bear Creed campground. There were quite a few people there, we were lucky enough to find a place e to call home for the night.
Sleep crept up fast, while the temps being cooler than the night before and even with out the chorus of coyotes and no organic pillows, we slept sound.
After waking up and knowing we could reach the coast, we gathered up camp and headed on our way. We reached Coos Bay fairly quickly and stopped at Yakima lighthouse and saw or first glimpse of the ocean. Stopping for gas along the way two attendants were there to pump has for us. we thought that was pretty neat, and wondered if we needed to tip them. We thanked her and left a two dollar tip and headed out along the sand dunes.
The first part of the day gave us only glimpses of the ocean, but the sand dunes and forested are was wonderful. Driving along, there were some pull-offs that have us a wonderful view of the beach. We hiked down to the water and the hillside was covered with blackberries. We picked a handful and continued our hike down to play along the beach, where we spent a while picking up sand dollars and seashells.
Walking up the coast, we found some caves. We were there early enough we didn’t have to worry about the tide coming in for a while, so we set out exploring. The rocks were covered with muscles and starfish, which were in varieties of blue, purple, red, and orange.
While at the beach, we ran in to some clam diggers, digging up razor clams for their dinner, and people out on horse rides, offered further down the beach. After taking some awesome pictures and playing in the surf we headed up the the car. Just around the corner, we stopped the sea lion cave.
The smell of the cave hit us as soon as the elevator doors opened, but he cave was worth going into. We were at an overlook and noticed we weren’t far at all from the caves we were messing around in. Good thing that there wasn’t a lion in there. The three of us would not have been much of a match for a 300 pound seal.
We bought a few souvenirs, took some pictures of the lions and another light house and headed on our way.
Wanting to reach Portland we continued on our journey, but no beaches we went to compared to the beach right before the lion caves. I don’t know if it was just the timing with the tide or what, but no other beach had the sand dollars or sea shells that it did.
We stopped at Newport for a sea-food dinner. Two of us had the seafood platter with shrimp, oysters, calamari and two different fish fillets and the other had salmon. It was the best dinner we had the whole trip, the other nights, we heated up soup on our backpacking stoves.
We stopped at a gas station and when we were filling our tank, and attendant ran out of the store and yelled “Hey! You know that’s a $3000 dollar fine?!” What did we do? He informed us that in Oregon and New Jersey, you cannot fill your own tank.
Just outside Portland, we got off the highway and went down a country lane. This was the reason for our journey, the rest is a “since we will be in the area…”. We were looking for the plaque that commemorated the very first “geocache” hidden May 3, 2000.
The first stash was a black bucket filled with trade items, the most famous of all was a can of beans (This can of beans was posted on eBay for 7500, but there were no bids)
This cache was destroyed by road crews, but the place is placed in the spot, and a trading cache is just a hop, skip, and a jump from the area.
Now we headed for a hotel so we could wash the miles of grime and stink from us and get a good rest, we weren’t even ½ way done.
That next morning, our goal was to go and get a cache in Vancouver, British Columbia. There was quite a line to cross the borer, so while we were waiting, Athena and I got out of the car and took pictures in the little park they have there. We took pics of the flags they have on the US and Canadian flags made out of flowers, and pillars hey have to mark the international boundary. We got have into the car and went to the border patrol. The asked us for our ID and birth certificates and asked us lots of questions like “Why are you coming to Canada“, “Have you ever been here before?”, ”How do you all know each other?”, “Where do you work?”, “What do you do there?” “Whose car is this?” “How long are you going to be in Canada?” “What are you going to do?“, and“Have you ever been arrested?“
After he grilled us , he asked us to pull voer to the side. They were going to search our car! We went into customs, and they asked us the same questions and took our ID for what I believe was a background check.
After ½ hour, they let us back to the car and it was a mess, I the back seat where we had sleeping bags and blankets had been gone thru, and was scattered about, and when we stopped at the hotel the next night, I found out they had gone thru my bag, even unwrapping dirty socks that I had used to wrap a sand dollar!
We finally got the border behind us we headed to town. We took pics of some Canadians along the way (real Canadians, in Canadia) and hit a park that had a cache in it. We took some travel bugs, left a few more and headed further in to Canada to Stanley Park.
Stanley Park was pretty neat. Entering you have a nice view of Loins Gate Bridge and the view of the ocean. Raccoons were everywhere. People were all gathered around thanking pics of them. I even saw one father giving his small daughter pieces of cookie so she could give them to the vermin. Do they not realize hat they are wild animals? They have sharp teeth and claws, and are a known carrier of rabies? No wonder when I see around home them I try to get rid of them.
After taking more pics and burying souvenirs, we headed back to the mother country. We took pics of the “Welcome to the United States” and the border. The gaurd there asked Shphilby if he was taking pics, and he said that he was just holding it and I was thinking to myself “here we go again” . The guard asking us he same series of questions and we showed our ID and we were allowed back home.
Canada was all right, perhaps deeper into the country would bring some nice hiking or backpacking adventures, but Vancouver itself is a rat’s nest of streets easy to get lost in. We would have wondered around hopelessly if shphilby didn’t bring his laptop with maps on it.
We drove around the Seattle areas for a few hours to find a place to camp near the Project APE cache, but around midnight, we had to get a hotel because all the sites were pay, and we could not find a pay station.
We hit the APE cache the next morning, the way we went, was on a old rail bed that took you thru a 2 mile tunnel. This was pretty cool. Water was seeping down and it was pretty chilly, You could see the exit from the entrance, one it got dark enough, and it took quite a while to exit.
We got the APE cache, and we headed home thru Coeur de Lane into Missoula, Montana and down I-15 home, leaving Seattle and 3pm and arriving home at 8 the next morning. All and all, we visited seven states and two countries, getting 53 caches, and traveling 3000 miles. Best of all, it only cost a total of 757 dollars, not including drinks, snacks, and souvenirs.

[Sombeech]

Wow, you guys really got around. Nice TR.

[AD0OR]

Wow... Someday..

[DiscGo]

Yeah, this would be cool to hit.


Jacob- I didn't know you joined this site. Welcome aboard!

[AD0OR]

thanks!